Animation in popular culture is often associated with cartoons, animated movies or special effects for live action movies.  Animation at a basic level is a series of slightly different still images, that when viewed one after another at a high rate of speed gives the illusion of movement.  The end result is similar to video or TV but instead of capturing movement of the real world, animations are able to create approximations of the real world or completely imaginary worlds.  Animation types include character animation, motion picture special effects, video game animation, architectural visualization, medical animation, etc.  One very specialized and seldom heard of animation type is industrial animation.  Industrial animation is the animation of products or processes for industry and business.   This type of animation can also be referred to as technical animation or business animation.

The main purpose of technical animations is to take a difficult to explain or understand industrial product/process and by animating it, allow the viewer to quickly gain a good understanding of the product/process.  Often used when traditional methods (photographs, video, technical drawings, onsite visits) do not give the viewer enough information.   Technical animation is especially suited to products/processes that are very difficult to view in live operation due to viewing constraints (guards, obstructions), safety constraints (potential human injury), size constraints (invisible to naked eye or extremely large) or speed constraints (very fast or slow).  They have applications in sales and marketing, equipment presales, industry tradeshows, online digital media, print media, maintenance training, operator training and attracting investors.

Industrial animations are created almost exclusively on computers using specialized 3d modeling and animation software.  The basic steps to creating an animation are storyboarding, 3d modeling, 3d animation, rendering and compression.  The first step to creating an animation is storyboarding.  Used extensively in the motion picture industry, a step by step story is created of when and how the equipment components (actors) in the animation will behave.  3d modeling is the creation a three dimensional computer representation of the product or process that is to be animated.  The 3d model suitable for animating can be created from photographs, 2d drawings or supplied 3d models.  The next step takes the created 3d model and applies the predetermined storyboard to it.  Equipment components are given constraints and timings by which they must act.  Lighting, camera angles, coloring, backgrounds, etc are also setup according to the storyboard.  Once completed the animation must be rendered by one or many computers calculating still image frames (jpeg, tiff, etc) based on the prescribed setup from the animating stage.  After the frames have been rendered they are stitched together into a single animation file that plays at the required speed and compressed into a format/codec suitable for the desired media playback (web, local computer, DVD, etc).

English Terminology: Technical animation, industrial animations, animated, rendering, 3D renderings, model, models, training, trade shows, exhibitions.

French Terminology: animation technique, industrielle animations, animation, rendu, rendus 3D, le modèle, les modèles, la formation, salons, expositions.

German Terminology: Technische Animation, Industrie-Animationen, animierte, rendering, 3D-renderings, modell, modelle, schulungen, messen, ausstellungen.

Spanish Terminology: Técnica de animación, animaciones industrial, animación, renderizado, renders 3D, modelo, modelos, formación, ferias, exposiciones.